Editorial: New sex-trafficking law overdue

Apr. 24, 2012

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin. / JOURNAL NEWS FILE PHOTO

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A Journal News editorial

Read the bill

To view the proposed Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act, go to the Assembly’s website, http://assembly.state.ny.us, and type in the bill number — A 9804 — in the Quick Bill Search window.

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She was first forced into sex at age 9. She escaped her tormenter at 12, only to end up with another man who would sell her to other men for sex. She was called a prostitute, but she had no say in what she did for money — funds that were always turned over to someone else.

This journey did not unfold in Cartagena, Colombia, where the sex-trafficking trade has lately come into focus; there, it takes cover under the guise of “legal prostitution” catering to wealthy businessmen and even, we have learned, Secret Service agents — prompting disgust and outrage in the U.S. The story of this young victim plays out not in Latin America’s or Southeast Asia’s sex-tourism industry, but in New York.

The Mount Vernon girl, now 16, told her story at an Albany news conference last week, to win support for stronger sex-trafficking laws in New York. It was as gripping and heart-wrenching an endorsement as could be imagined.

New York’s “Safe Harbor” laws, enacted in 2008, need to be strengthened. Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, has proposed legislation to increase accountability “for the criminals, the buyers and the traffickers who are fueling the underground growth of this massive industry,” as she told told staff writer Cara Matthews.

Key updates

Paulin’s legislation would create the charge of “aggravated patronizing a minor” in the first, second or third degree — a class B violent felony, similar to statutory rape. In sum, it would create a clear path for protecting sex-trafficking victims while dealing harsh punishment to perpetrators.

“Shockingly enough, people, mostly men, who patronize children for prostitution … face a lesser penalty than individuals who commit the crime of statutory rape,” Dorchen Leidholdt, director of the Sanctuary for Families Legal Center, said on YNN’s “Capitol Tonight.” Now, patronizing a prostitute — even a minor — is considered a nonviolent crime.

The law would also prohibit the defense that an adult patronizing a child prostitute lacked reasonable grounds to believe the victim was underage. The law would also classify as sex trafficking the act of providing marijuana and Ecstasy to a prostituted person with the intent to impair judgment. Those drugs are commonly used to diminish the capacity of victims, but they aren’t referenced in the existing law.

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Also not included in the current law — the use of limousines as “rolling brothels.” The new bill includes the possible charge of promoting prostitution for those involved in transporting a person for the purpose of prostitution — such as limo drivers who profit from the sex-trafficking enterprise.

“It’s not someone who just called a taxi. It’s someone who’s engaged and someone who knows what they’re doing,” Paulin told the Editorial Board. Not having a fixed location, victims told prosecutors, is standard practice for sex traffickers trying to cover their tracks and avoid detection.

“We’re just amazed at the sophistication and … the insidiousness of it,” Leidholdt said on YNN.

Trafficked children would also gain more protection post-arrest. Now, 16- and 17-year-olds often end up in Criminal Court; the law would be updated so they, like younger victims, would be directed to Family Court, where they would receive protection and services.

The bill also would change references in the law that refer to defendants as “prostitutes” to “person for prostitution.” The change goes beyond semantics. Said Paulin: “It’s the only place in the penal law that identifies someone by the crime,” further stigmatizing victims; it also ignores that boys are trafficked, too.

Held accountable

Americans need not look far to find victims of sex trafficking, even with the continuing focus and attention on the scandal involving the Secret Service and our military. Hundreds of thousands of girls, often from American cities, have been forced into prostitution in the U.S., experts say.

In 2010, a 16-year-old girl from the Bronx was brought by her pimp to a Rockland County hotel for sex with former Giants football star Lawrence Taylor. He maintained that he didn’t know the girl was underage or coerced, notwithstanding her bruises and cries. Brianna, the girl from Mount Vernon, said she had been forced to sell her body hundreds of times; she turned 16 last week.

Paulin said the new measures will help law enforcement “go after and hold accountable the real criminals — the buyers, the traffickers and the transporters — who fuel this massive, heinous industry.”

Every tool is necessary to protect children who are trafficked into prostitution.